Isn’t coincidence a funny thing?
Only the other night I turned to my wife and said regretfully: “You know, there just doesn’t seem to be anyone playing decent nyckelharpa tunes anymore.” Imagine then my astonishment and glee when Peter Puma Hedlund’s CD dropped through the post, – and behold! - an album filled to the brim with no less that 22 nyckelharpa tunes. My ship had come in.
Peter is from Sweden and his album is called ‘Vägen’/’The Way’. The album comprises of self-compositions as well as traditional tunes that Peter has arranged for the nyckelharpa. He has kindly provided some line notes to each track. Upon reading his comments for Track 1 (‘Ålgamarschen’/’Moose March’), I found myself nodding vociferously in agreement with Peter’s contention that, ‘there’s a shortage of good moose hunting tunes’. In Manchester we have to make do with Franz Ferdinand when tracking elk.
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I don’t know where Peter gets all his energy from. When he’s not writing new tunes for the nyckelharpa, teaching the nyckelharpa or out shooting moose while listening to the nyckelharpa on his walkman, he likes nothing more than to kick his heels to a good polska or a waltz, even the odd march. And he possesses an infectious sense of humour. On Track 7 (‘Sällamnar’n’/’He Who Leaves The Room’), my wife and I were reduced to a fit of giggles when we read Peter’s anecdotal story about how the tune got its name. Apparently Peter was playing it on stage when one of his students left the hall as he began and came back just after he’d finished!
I can’t wait to tell that one to the boys up at the hunting lodge.
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